PC-CAP News

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 30, 2016 – Taking low-dose aspirin daily can reduce older Americans' risk of heart disease and cancer, and lead to significant savings in health care spending, a new study contends. University of Southern California researchers used national data to assess the long-term benefits of daily aspirin usage. They calculated that taking low-dose aspirin every day would prevent 11 cases of heart disease and four cases of cancer for every 1,000 Americans ages 51 to 79. "Although the health benefits of aspirin are well-established, few people take it," said study lead author Dr. David Agus. He's the founding director and CEO of the university's Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine. "Our study shows multiple health benefits and a reduction in health care spending from this simple, low-cost measure that should be considered a standard part of care for the ... Read more

TUESDAY, Nov. 22, 2016 – An estimated one in 250 Americans lands in the hospital emergency department each year because of a medication-related reaction or problem, a new federal study finds. Among adults 65 and older, the rate is about one in 100, the study authors said. Remarkably, the medicines causing the most trouble haven't changed in a decade, the researchers noted. Blood thinners, diabetes medicines and antibiotics top the list. These drugs accounted for 47 percent of emergency department visits for adverse drug events in 2013 and 2014, according to the analysis. Among older adults, blood thinners, diabetes medicines and opioid painkillers are implicated in nearly 60 percent of emergency department visits for adverse drug events. "The same drugs are causing the most problems," said study co-author Dr. Daniel Budnitz. The study doesn't tease out what went wrong. The reasons ... Read more

THURSDAY, Nov. 10, 2016 – People who get little sleep are likely to drink significantly more sugar-sweetened and caffeinated beverages, a new study finds. The findings suggest that improving sleep could help reduce people's sugar intake, according to researchers from the University of California, San Francisco. They analyzed data from nearly 19,000 American adults. Those who regularly slept five or fewer hours a night drank 21 percent more sugar-sweetened, caffeinated beverages like soda and energy drinks than those who slept seven to eight hours a night. People who regularly slept six hours a night consumed 11 percent more of the drinks than those who got more sleep. Researchers said they didn't know whether sugary drinks cause people to sleep less, or whether sleep deprivation leads them to consume more sugar and caffeine to stay awake. Previous studies suggest both could be true. ... Read more

MONDAY, Oct. 31, 2016 – The number of young children and teens hospitalized for overdosing on opioid painkillers has spiked nearly 200 percent in recent years, a new study finds. Among children under 10, most of the painkiller poisonings were accidental, with children "eating them like candy," said lead researcher Julie Gaither, a postdoctoral fellow in biostatistics at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn. Among teens, most were accidental overdoses, although some were suicide attempts. In both age groups, the increase in cases involving painkillers like OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin was dramatic. Among children aged 1 to 4 years, the number of poisonings went up 205 percent from 1997 to 2012. For teens 15 to 19, the increase was 176 percent. Overall, the study showed a 165 percent increase in poisonings from opioid painkillers among those 19 and younger. In addition, ... Read more

THURSDAY, Oct. 20, 2016 – Taking medications as prescribed improves outcomes for heart procedure patients, a new study finds. Researchers looked at 973 heart bypass patients and 2,255 patients who underwent angioplasty and stenting to reopen clogged heart arteries. Heart bypass surgery is when surgeons take a piece of blood vessel from somewhere else in the body to bypass a blocked portion of the heart's artery. Angioplasty is performed using a thin catheter that's threaded through the blood vessels to the heart. A balloon on the end of the catheter is inflated to open the narrowed blood vessel. Sometimes a stent (a mesh or wire tube) will be left in the blood vessel to keep it open. Prescribed medications in the study included cholesterol-lowering statins, blood thinners and beta blockers. Follow-up information was collected 12 to 18 months after the heart procedures. Overall, ... Read more

MONDAY, Oct. 24, 2016 – Millions of Americans with back pain take powerful and potentially addictive opioid painkillers. But in a new survey, many say the drugs provide only limited relief and they worry about taking them. The survey included more than 2,000 people with low back pain. Of the nearly half who were currently taking opioids, only 13 percent said the drugs were very successful at relieving their pain. Forty-four percent said the drugs were somewhat successful, 31 percent said they were moderately successful and 12 percent said they were unsuccessful. Seventy-five percent said the drugs had side effects such as constipation (65 percent), sleepiness (37 percent), thinking and memory problems (32 percent) and drug dependence (29 percent). "Patients are increasingly aware that opioids are problematic, but don't know there are alternative treatment options," said survey author ... Read more

FRIDAY, Oct. 21, 2016 – Why can some people enjoy a cup of coffee just before bed and sleep peacefully, while others lie awake for hours? A new study suggests genes may hold the answer. "Each of us could be potentially responding to caffeine differently, and it's possible that those differences can extend beyond that of caffeine," said study author Marilyn Cornelis. She is an assistant professor in the department of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. In earlier research, Cornelis linked variations in genes to patterns of coffee consumption. In the new study, she looked for connections between these gene variations and chemicals that appear in the blood after people consume caffeine. She found that gene variants linked to lower levels of caffeine chemicals – which suggest faster caffeine metabolism – are the same variants previously ... Read more

THURSDAY, Oct. 20, 2016 – Eating a Mediterranean diet and consuming caffeine may lower your chances of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness, according to a new study. Previous research has shown that a Mediterranean diet – high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, healthy fats and fish – benefits the heart and lowers cancer risk. But there has been little research on whether it helps protect against eye diseases such as AMD, the researchers noted. Using questionnaires, the researchers assessed the diets of 883 people, aged 55 and older, in Portugal. Of those, 449 had early stage AMD and 434 did not have the eye disease. Closely following a Mediterranean diet was associated with a 35 percent lower risk of AMD, and eating lots of fruit was especially beneficial. The researchers also found that people who consumed high levels of caffeine ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 19, 2016 – Patients who survived major trauma may not be a significant factor in the U.S. opioid epidemic, a new study suggests. Almost 75 percent of major trauma patients who were prescribed narcotic painkillers such as OxyContin and Percocet had stopped using them a month after leaving the hospital. And only 1 percent were still taking the drugs on a prescription basis a year later, researchers found. "We were really surprised by how low the numbers were for long-term opiate use," study senior investigator Dr. Andrew Schoenfeld said in an American College of Surgeons news release. "It appears that traumatic injury is not a main driver for continued opioid use in patients who were not taking opioids prior to their injuries," said Schoenfeld, an orthopedic surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Misuse of prescription pain drugs has become a serious health ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 19, 2016 – Even if they know the pills are fake, chronic back pain sufferers may get relief from placebo drugs, a new study indicates. Researchers found that patients who knowingly took a placebo pill while undergoing traditional treatment for lower back pain had less pain and disability than those who received traditional treatment alone. "These findings turn our understanding of the placebo effect on its head," said Ted Kaptchuk, a joint senior author of the study and director of the Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. "This new research demonstrates that the placebo effect is not necessarily elicited by patients' conscious expectation that they are getting an active medicine, as long thought," Kaptchuk added in a hospital news release. "Taking a pill in the context of a patient-clinician ... Read more

MONDAY, Oct. 17, 2016 – Contrary to common belief, coffee doesn't seem to increase the risk of irregular heartbeats in people with heart failure, according to a small Brazilian study. "Our data reassures that most patients with heart disease might drink moderate doses of caffeine-rich beverages with no major risks," said lead researcher Dr. Luis Rohde. He's from the division of cardiology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre. Caffeine-rich beverages have long been suspected of causing several heart-related symptoms, such as palpitations or rapid or irregular heartbeats, Rohde said. "Because of this assumption, counseling to reduce or avoid caffeine consumption is still widely recommended in clinical practice by most physicians for patients with any heart disease," he said. But Rohde's team found no link between caffeine and abnormal heartbeats in the short ... Read more

-- Your habits just before you slip into bed could be sabotaging your night of sleep. The National Sleep Foundation says do NOT: Take any over-the-counter medications that contain pseudoephedrine, found in common cold medicines, which can keep you awake. Opt for a nighttime formula that may help you feel drowsy. Text, watch TV or spend time on the computer shortly before bed. Take a hot shower or bath just before bed. It's best to do so about an hour before you plan to sleep, as that gives your body temperature time to drop again. Indulge in a greasy, fattening, salty bedtime snack, which can be stimulating and trigger nightmares. Drink caffeine beyond the morning, as it can stay in your system for as long as 12 hours. Read more

TUESDAY, Sept. 27, 2016 – More than half of the narcotic painkillers prescribed after wisdom teeth removal go unused, according to a new study that suggests this could contribute to the U.S. opioid epidemic. "When translated to the broad U.S. population, our findings suggest that more than 100 million opioid pills prescribed to patients following surgical removal of impacted wisdom teeth are not used, leaving the door open for possible abuse or misuse by patients, or their friends or family," said study author Dr. Brandon Maughan. Previous studies have shown that many painkiller abusers take extra pills that were prescribed for friends or relatives, Maughan and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine and School of Dental Medicine, noted in a school news release. For the study, the researchers examined painkiller use by 79 patients who had their ... Read more

FRIDAY, Sept. 9, 2016 – Coffee may stain your teeth, but its health benefits outweigh that problem, dental experts say. Research suggests that java may help protect the liver; reduce risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes; boost metabolism; and keep your brain sharp, according to the Academy of General Dentistry. There's also early evidence that coffee may help protect teeth by preventing bone loss in the jaw, noted the academy, which has members in the United States and Canada. "Coffee in moderation has many nutritional benefits," said Nasir Bashirelahi in an academy news release. He's a professor at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry. But if the thought of stained teeth concerns you, there are things you can do to minimize or prevent discoloration, the academy says. For instance, sip through a straw to reduce the amount of coffee that touches your teeth. And rinse ... Read more

ISSUE: FDA review has found that the growing combined use of opioid medicines with benzodiazepines or other drugs that depress the central nervous system (CNS) has resulted in serious side effects, including slowed or difficult breathing and deaths. Opioids are used to treat pain and cough; benzodiazepines are used to treat anxiety, insomnia, and seizures. In an effort to decrease the use of opioids and benzodiazepines, or opioids and other CNS depressants, together, FDA is adding Boxed Warnings, our strongest warnings, to the drug labeling of prescription opioid pain and prescription opioid cough medicines, and benzodiazepines. See the Drug Safety Communication for a listing of all approved prescription opioid pain and cough medicines, and benzodiazepines and other CNS depressants. FDA conducted and reviewed several studies showing that serious risks are associated with the combined ... Read more